Bernie Ecclestone’s unseen £500m Formula 1 collection put up for sale

Once or twice a year, auction houses will undertake the sale of car collections of a magnitude you might not have thought possible. While some fine collections are open for all to see, there are plenty kept under lock and key, and this is one of them. The sale of Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula 1 collection reveals some iconic cars not seen in public for decades and is one to top them all.

Expansive to say the least, the collection features a total of 69 models spanning 70 years of the sport, from Stirling Moss’ Vanwall VW10 to a number of iconic World Championship-winning Ferraris and every single one of Ecclestone’s Brabhams. Not only is this collection probably one of the most valuable of its kind, but it is also one that would be nearly impossible to replicate.

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The likes of the controversial Gordon Murray-designed Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46B ‘fan car’ are part of the collection, along with models responsible for introducing technology we still use in racing today. Tom Hartley Junior, head of sales, said: ‘…There’s the famous Thin Wall Special which was the first Ferrari ever to beat Alfa Romeo, the Alberto Ascari Italian Grand Prix-winning 375 F1, the Mike Hawthorn World Championship-winning Dino, which Ferrari campaigned over three seasons before being donated to the Henry Ford Museum, plus historically significant world championship-winning Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher cars.’